The present invention relates generally to a propellant retention device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a retention pawl for retaining modular propellant increments in a gun barrel during a loading process.
Traditionally, most larger caliber guns, such as guns having a caliber of greater than 105 millimeters, are loaded with ammunition from a breech end of the gun barrel. This process typically involves removing a breech block from the breech end of the gun barrel to provide access to the breech end of the gun barrel. Next, a projectile is inserted into the gun barrel. Propellant is then placed into the gun barrel and the breech block is positioned over the breech end of the gun barrel.
To enhance the ease of loading propellant into the gun barrel, the propellant is usually packaged in modular increments. By changing the number of increments loaded, the amount of force imparted to the projectile during the firing process can be varied.
In most breech loading guns that separately load propellant, a lower surface of the gun barrel has a depression that forms a lip in the gun barrel. This lip is often referred to as a Swiss notch. As propellant increments are inserted into the gun barrel, the propellant increments are prevented from sliding backwardly out of the gun barrel by the lip. Once all of the propellant increments are loaded into the gun barrel, the breech block is moved into position behind the breech end of the gun barrel and thereby prepare the gun for firing.
In order for the lip to be effective at retaining the propellant increments in the gun barrel, the gun barrel must be rotated to a substantially horizontal orientation before initiating the loading process. Such a procedure is particularly suited for manual loading processes because it is difficult for a person performing the loading process to insert the projectile and the propellant into the gun barrel when the gun barrel is oriented at an angle that substantially deviates from horizontal.
It can be appreciated that the time needed to perform the loading operation is significantly increased by lowering the gun barrel from the desired firing orientation to a horizontal loading orientation. Additionally, once the gun is reloaded it must be raised from the loading orientation to the desired firing orientation before firing the gun.
The present invention relates to a dual action retention pawl for securing ammunition components in a breech loading gun. The gun has a barrel with a bore along a longitudinal axis of the barrel. The gun also has a breech opening with a moveable breech block at a rear of the bore. The dual action retention pawl includes a base, a pawl arm and an activation arm.
The base is operably attached to the barrel of the gun. The pawl arm and an activation arm are operably attached to the base such that the pawl arm pivots to a retracted position in response to an ammunition component engaging the activation arm when the ammunition component is loaded into the breech opening and returns to a retention position once the ammunition component is loaded to retain the ammunition component within the barrel of the gun. The pawl arm pivots to the retracted position in response to the breech block engaging the activation arm when the breech block is moved to close the breech opening.